


The Prince and the Pollination

by Twin_Kitten



Series: Reylo Monster Week 2018 [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fairies, Reylo - Freeform, Reylo Monster Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 00:58:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16440062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twin_Kitten/pseuds/Twin_Kitten
Summary: Ben, Crown Prince of the fairies, signs up to help with cleaning up winter and preparing for spring... All so he can spend time with the worker fairy named Rey.





	The Prince and the Pollination

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, I love getting comments, and I'm trying to reply when I can, but monster week posting schedule combined with work and family, is super busy. Love you guys, please let me know if you want me to continue any of these. Some I really liked and want to continue into full stories,lol.
> 
> So, this one was tough, there are so many mythological creatures to choose from, but every time I started writing it turned into a really long thing that wasn't suitable for a one shot for monster week. So, after half writing what felt like a dozen stories, this one didn't get as much love as I'd like. I want to revisit Reylo as fairies or Fae, but probably not a direct continuation of this story.

“- seed distribution. Rey, pollination. Fitz, cloud duty. Yarna-”

 

The names went on and on, the droning voice of Unkar as he read off the list of assigned duties, but Rey was already moving towards the boards that would tell her where she was supposed to go. She was surprised he had given her a decent job this year; he usually had her doing garbage work. In comparison, pollinating the flowers, trees, and bushes would be a nice break.

 

Staring at the list, she found her name and scanned across. “Partner: Ren?” She scrunched her face. She had never had a partner before. With a shrug, she twitched her wings and leapt off the wooden platform, navigating her way out of the tree hollow and out into the fresh air. She hated being stuck in the hollow, much preferring the open air.

 

There were many reasons that Rey suspected that was why Unkar put her on the inside duties that were the lowest of the low. He didn’t like her, so she rarely had any help and had never had a partner. This would be interesting.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ben had no idea what had possessed him to sign up to help with the Bring Spring clean up. It was a week of the fairies putting away the vestiges of winter and setting up for spring. His parents never let him help, since as crown prince, he was never going to be doing those jobs. Instead, they wanted him to learn the organization and how to plan the Bring Spring event.

 

All Ben wanted to do was spend time with the cute worker fairy.  _ Okay, he knew what made him sign up for clean up duty. _ Rey.

 

She was really something. He had seen her one day and had been inexplicably smitten. No one understood. Not even Ben. All he knew was he wanted to talk to her, spend time with her, look at her…. Maybe kiss her a little. “Get it together Ben, she’ll be here any minute.”

 

He shook himself, slapping his cheeks and taking a few deep breaths as he waited in the mushroom patch. He had brought the sparrows from the royal nest, hoping to impress her with some nice rides. Plus, it would help to get done faster and then they could spend the rest of their time getting to know each other. He could take her to the firefly meadow. She would probably like that. Ben hoped she would like it.

 

Flexing his wings, he sighed, seeing a flash of blue wings heading towards him. She emerged from the blades of grass and he smiled, waving and putting a hand on his hip as he tried to be casual. “Hey, you must be my partner, Rey?”

 

“Yeah, you are Ren?” Rey peered up at him, looking very hesitant about the situation.

 

Ben knew what he looked like, so he knew why she had that look on her face. He was…. Lumbering. Most male fairies were tall and slim, and Ben only fulfilled the tall portion of that description. He was broad in the shoulder and thick in the chest, and his wings were so big they usually caused him to be clumsy when he was doing anything but flying.

 

Then he realized what she had said. “Ren?” Someone must have messed up his name on the list. He had been in a hurry when he snuck his name on the list. “Right, yeah, that’s me.” He grinned, but she gave him a confused look, understandably since he apparently didn’t know his own name. “But they must have messed up on the list. It’s Ben, actually.”

 

Then, Rey laughed. “That makes more sense, what kind of name is Ren?”

 

Ben’s heart thudded and he nodded with a tight smile. She had a nice laugh. “Yeah, that would be strange.” Kicking his foot on the ground, he rubbed a hand over his neck and nodded towards the birds. “I um… I brought some sparrows. Thought things might go a little quicker and we could rest after.”

 

He was immediately pleased by her reaction. She gasped, her mouth dropping open as she moved towards the birds. Small for birds, but perfect for fairies to ride.

 

“Wow! How did you do that?” She reached out, stroking her hand over the glossy feathers. “They are so beautiful. I’ve never seen one up close.”

 

Ben was suddenly nervous. He had been riding sparrows his whole life, but if she never had ridden a bird before, she might fall off. “Um, you know, if you’ve never ridden, you might be scared. Maybe we should just fly, like usual?”

 

“No way! I’ve been riding anything I could catch for years.” She grinned swinging herself up onto the sparrow’s back. “I bet I can pollinate faster than you!” 

 

Ben’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected her to be so… daring. He liked it! “No way! I’m the best sparrow-rider in the upper city!” He threw himself between the wings of the slightly larger sparrow, and the two of them kicked off the ground and the birds launched into the sky.

 

“The upper city?” Rey stared at him as he whizzed past her. 

 

Ben grinned and looked over his shoulder, watching as her confused face morphed into determined competitiveness.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Rey narrowed her eyes at the broad back in front of her. Ben was not what she had expected from a work partner; tall, handsome, with the biggest set of wings she had ever seen AND a pair of riding sparrows. But… He was from the upper city.

 

The upper city was where the fairies with high status lived. Rey hated them, all of them. Her parents had been killed by a high-fairy, and because of his status, he had never been punished. But Rey had been sent to live in the hollow with Unkar and the other fairies with no status and no family. She had been punished, while still grieving her parents, and forced to work herself to the bone to earn her keep.

 

No matter how nice Ben seemed, she could never be friends with him. There would be no high-fairies in her life, and as soon as she was out from Unkar’s thumb, she would go off on her own and be a lone fairy. It would be dangerous but, better than working for everyone else and looked down on the rest of her life.

 

No high-fairy friends, no high-fairy boys. Those are the rules Rey lived by.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A week later, Rey wanted to break her rules.

 

Ben had worked hard the week of Bring Spring, despite clearly not knowing what he was doing. He had taken her instructions without complaint or offense and worked as hard and as long as she did. Which was enough to get Rey’s grudging respect. But it was the other things he did that made her want more of him.

 

He had started bringing her little snacks during their work week. He always brought his own lunch and when he saw she didn’t have one, started bringing extra for her. She hadn’t asked him, and had even refused his food. But when he threatened to throw the food out, she had caved and started eating what he brought.

 

He brought the sparrows every day, even when they finished pollination duty two days early thanks to their playful challenges and races on the fast birds. She loved riding them, faster and sharper turning than her own wings. Fairies moved more like butterflies than fast birds, and the rush made Rey feel alive and happy. So even on the day they lounged around the meadow or like they were doing today, leisurely flew up to the ponds, he brought the birds.

 

The worst was the way he looked at her. Like she was … Special. He looked at her with what felt like worship in his eyes. He listened to her as if she was important. It wasn’t the way the other desperate worker fairies listened to Unker, or the bored way they all listened to speeches at full clan meetings. He listened like everything she said mattered. Like she mattered.

 

Rey kind of hated how being with him, and feeling the warmth of his respect and attention highlighted how cold and terrible the rest of her life was. Going from spending all day with Ben, who treated her like a person, to spending the evenings with Unkar, who treated her like a low-life, was akin to being ripped from a blanket and thrown to the snow.

 

And now, she sat with her feet dangling in the small pool and Ben lay on his belly, his shoulders hitched up and his elbows in the sand, looking up at her with that twinkle in his eyes and a smirk on his mouth.

 

She curled her shoulder in and turned away from him, giving him a suspicious frown. “Why are you looking at me like that? What do you want now?”

 

“You should come over to my branch. We can…. Hang out or something.”

 

Rey rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m going to fly myself to the upper city and swan in your family tree and hang out in your branch?”

 

He shrugged, the heavy weight of his back and the rounds of his shoulders lifting and distracting her, his wings lying to cover the rest of him. “Why not?”

 

“Ben, there is no way Unkar would let me go anywhere in the evenings, and even if he did, I’d stick out like a sore thumb in the upper city.” Rey twitched her wings, resettling them in an effort to ignore the look on his face.

 

He sighed, rolling over to lay on his back and throw his arm over his forehead, dark eyes looking up at her. “Why do you let that guy treat you like that?”

 

Rolling her eyes, she kicked her feet in the water. “What am I supposed to do? Not all of us have grown up in the branches. I have nowhere to go and I’m not ready to be on my own.” This wasn’t the first time he had complained about Unkar. The first had been after meeting her at the hollow one morning he got to see how the blubbering old fairy yelled at her. So Ben had been told of her plans, just to stop him from whatever crazy scheme he had thought of that would only get Rey in trouble while he swanned off back to the upper city.

 

“Let me talk to my parents. If nothing else they can help you get a better job, but you could live with us.”

 

“Ben… That’s not happening.”

 

Restless as always, he sat up and leaned close to her. “Rey, come on. Let me help you.”

 

“That’s the problem. I don’t need you to save me.”

 

He groaned, flopping his forehead to her shoulder and for a moment, Rey flashed white hot. “It’s not like that.”

 

Rey jiggled her shoulder to get him to lift his head, and he did, but now his mouth was too close to her face. So she pushed him, off the ledge and into the pond.

 

Seeing him soaking wet and looking up at her, his arms moving to keep him floating in the water as his wings drifted behind him shouldn’t have made her face flush, but it did. Now his dark hair was slicked back and his clothes clung to his frame highlighting every muscle. Even now he didn’t get mad, just chuckling and hauling himself out of the pool. “Come on, Rey.”

 

Rey drooped. She didn’t want to give in, simply on principle, but his offer was so tempting.

 

Sensing that she was weakening, he leaned in and nudged his wet shoulder against her dry one. “At least come over. Meet my parents and have dinner with us. If you hate it you can go home.”

 

Sighing, Rey pulled up one leg and rested her chin on her knee, the other wiggling her toes in the water. “Alright.”

 

Ben grinned and glanced away, his mind already whirling with new ideas and Rey couldn’t help herself. She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

 

This time, he fell in the pond all on his own.


End file.
